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The Firm - Phone Tap  Instrumental

The Aboriginal Art Museum Utrecht (AAMU)

The Aboriginal Art Museum Utrecht (AAMU) is the only museum in Europe which is completely devoted to contemporary Australian Aboriginal art. The museum offers artists of Aboriginal origin a platform to show their work to a European public and hopes to give greater publicity and respect to this quite unknown genre. Next to calling for attention the museum also wants to inform and teach her visitors about contemporary Aboriginal art. By placing it next to modern Western art the visitor is challenged to start looking for similarities and differences and form an opinion on both artforms.

The AAMU concentrates specifically on the visual arts. However, some attention is given to other artistic expressions, music being one of them. In an educational program for youth an interactive, interdisciplinary approach towards art is given. At the Sound-Bites-Art experience one gets the opportunity to look at art in a different way with the help of an MP3-player. It is the idea that different musical genres each have their own influence on the perception of a work of art. Some attention is paid as well to the more authentic form of Aboriginal music, which is very important in the original religious culture: on demand didgeridoo workshops are offered.

This musical fragment is a song of the band Yothu Yindi. The members of this band are Aboriginals of the Yolngu tribe, coming from the northeast coast of Australia. The special thing about this band is the way they mix the specific sounds, customs and instruments of traditional Aborinigal music with elements of modern Western rock’n’roll. The result of fusion is a unique musical form, of which the source goes back for thousands of years, but which sounds modern and contemporary all the same. With this approach Yothu Yindi can be called the musical equivalent of the AAMU. 

Yothu Yindi - Djäpana

Tivoli

Tivoli is the epicentre of pop culture in the heart of Utrecht and with more than 300 000 visitors per year one of biggest pop stages in The Netherlands. They offer a varied program of international successful bands, famous Dutch artists and young talented musicians. Besides these many concerts, Tivoli also offers three dance-events a week with music varying from electro to hiphop to 80s music to trap. Lastly, Tivoli organizes yearly two great festival: Le Guess Who? en Summer Darkness.

Apart from this monumental location, which was once used as an orphanage and theatre, there’s another Tivoli location for bigger events, which is called Tivoli de Helling. Tivoli will move in 2014 to a new building which is currently built on the Vredenburgplein. Tivoli Oudegracht will close in 2014, but Tivoli de Helling will stay open.

A great example of the music often performed in Tivoli is the Dutch band ‘Go Back to the Zoo’. They had their breakthrough in the Netherlands in 2011, and have now some international success as well. The song ‘Electric’ is considered as their first major hit.


Go Back To The Zoo - Electric

Conservatory

The conservatory is part of the HKU, ‘Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht’ (Highschool for the Arts Utrecht). A complete education course is offered, from preparatory trainings to masters. A broad range of musical genres is offered. Classical, old and contemporary music, jazz and pop: everything is possible when you can choose from 40 different main subjects. Not only the techniques of making music are taught, attention is also paid to music theory and possible future jobs. That is why the conservatory organizes concerts and cultural events in Utrecht and the rest of the country on a regular basis.

The building in front of you was build in 1895 as the hospital of the brothers of Johannes de Deo in a neo-gothic style. From the architectural point of view the building is of great value as a typical example of urban development at the end of the 19th century. In 1971 Johannes de Deo found his new destination as a music school. De chapel is in large part still intact and is nowadays in use as a concert hall.

Some musicians who are internationally famous by now have started their education here at the conservatory in Utrecht. A good example is violinist Janine Jansen. Worldwide she is known and appreciated as a special and talented artist. She performed solo in famous concert halls en co-operated with worlds greatest orchestras like the New York philharmonic, the Londen Philharmonis and the Orchestre de Paris.

Janine Jansen, Itamar Golan - Après un Rêve

Drift

Utrecht is with the Utrecht University and the Hoge School Utrecht a place for research. The Utrecht University for example, offers a lot of different Bachelor and Master programmes ranging from Theater-, film and television studies to Biomedical Sciences. The Hoge School Utrecht also offers many different programmes.

Utrecht is for their many researchpossibilities a city for students. Students can be found everywhere in the city. In the City Centre is the Drift one of the most important studentlocations, because the faculty of Humanities, the faculty of Law and the University Library City Centre are here located. The library was in the 19th century the palace of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, king of Holland in 1806, but unfortunately nothing is left of the old architecture of the palace. 

Utrecht also offers other things to students than colleges and research. There are seven big student corporations and a lot of other smaller ones focused on sports, music, performing arts, international relations and religion.

Students are important in Utrecht and are a huge part of the culture in Utrecht. A lot of cultural events are specially organized for students. The UIT for example, the Utrecht Introduction Time, is an event where new students can get to know their new city and the student corporations. This event is held every year and was in the year 2010-2011 opened by the band Tot Sluit with the song ‘Buitengewoon UIT’, which is chosen for this place.


Tot Sluit - Buitengewoon UIT (Drift)

The building for Art and Sciences and Herman van Veen

The building for Art and Sciences (A&S) is the oldest public concert room of the Netherlands en is part of the current Utrechts Conservatory. The building was built in 1844 on the foundations of the Maria church, which was demolished in 1813. De oldest concert room, the J.M. Fentener van Vlissingen Zaal with an audience capacity of 221 chairs, was inaugurated in 1847 by the Utrechts Symfonie Orchestra. Famous musicians like Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann have performed in this concert room. The A&S also has a smaller concert room for jazz music, pop music en lectures and offers room rental for auditions or rehearsals for smaller ensembles.

Herman van Veen is a Dutch clown, comedian, writer, director, musician, actor, presenter and is born in Utrecht. His book ‘De Roode Droath’ shows us a walk that is inspired by the course of his newspaper job in his youth. In the book the S&A gets special attention because a lot of memorable things happened here: schoolparties, concerts, lectures but mainly the famous bussinessparties of his father. His father organized many theme-parties in the 50ths and 60ths for printing office Bosch in his precious free time. This building will for Herman van Veen always be the building with the parties from his father.

The song chosen fort his building is the song ‘Weet je nog’ from Herman van Veen. Memories are central in this song, just like this building is a memory for Herman van Veen to his father.


Weet je nog...- - Herman van Veen

City Theatre

You are standing in front of the City Theatre of Utrecht. The building was designed by the famous architect Willem Marinus Dudok, and it first opened in 1941. It is still in use today as a theatre, and it’s program consist of drama, opera, comedy and music, divided over two main stages. Together with the Vredenburg concert hall, the city theatre is an important musical centre for culture and music in Utrecht.

If one connects Utrecht with music, one can certainly not leave out the “Utrecht music war”. This dirty fight, also known as Pijper contra Van Gilse, took place in the first years of the twentieth century. Willem Pijper, a composer and music critter, wrote such negative and vile comments on the conductor of the Utrecht city orchestra, Jan van Gilse, that the latter had to resign his job and leave Utrecht for the rest of his life. 

Willem Pijper, the person who ‘won’ the Utrecht music war, also was an important Dutch composer. He composed in a lot of different styles, and even helped inventing a complete new composition technique: the germ cell technique. This means that a composition begins with a few notes, and from this notes the entire composition grow, like a tree that grows from a small seed. Willem Pijper’s second symphony, which you can listen to here, is composed through this technique.


Willem Pijper - Symphony No. 2 (Stadsschouwburg)

City Hall

The city hall leaves an impression on every visitor that walks by it. The history of this imposing building dates back to 800 AD, according to archaeological evidence. Ever since the city of Utrecht has grown and developed around this spot. In 1830 the city hall was completely rebuilt in a neoclassical style. Because Utrecht kept growing, the city hall had to be extended to keep housing all the facilities of a modern city hall. Today, a couple of facilities have moved to other parts of the city. In the year 2000, the city hall was renovated again, and a complete new wing was attached to the old building. The Spanish architect Enric Miralles tried to combine the history of the city hall with modern architecture in his design. This mixture of old and new culture is a symbol for the place where the local government of Utrecht was located for over 650 years.

An important event in the history of Utrecht was the making of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. For this treaty, European leaders had to negotiate for 1 ½ years to establish the division of power in Europe and other areas of the world. It was not very common for negotiations to be successful, but after the Treaty of Utrecht an unusual long period of peace followed for Europe. In Utrecht, the foundation “The Treaty of Utrecht”, has been organising all sorts of activities for the last few years to celebrate the 300th year anniversary of the Treaty of Utrecht. With the slogan “Utrecht 2013”, 2013 is their big year, with the organisation of festivals, lectures and performances. The Treaty of Utrecht foundation wants to show the world that, if making peace by negotiating and talking was possible 300 years ago, it is still possible today. 

One of best kept-secrets of Utrecht is the “Utrecht Te Deum and Jublilate”, composed by Georg Friedrich Händel. When the Treaty of Utrecht was established in 1713, the English royal family was very pleased, and the immediately asked Händel to compose something to celebrate this event. It was the beginning of Händel’s long career in England. For the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Utrecht, the Dutch Bach Society recorded the Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, conducted by Jos van Veldhoven. You can listen to the part “As it was in the beginning it is now” from the Jubilate, from this recording, here.


Händel, Utrecht Jubilate - Glory be.. As it was...

Miffy’s square

Miffy’s square has been erected to honour miffy (nijntje in Dutch), the world-famous creation of the Utrecht artist Dick Bruna. The statue of miffy on this square was made by Dick Bruna’s son, Marc Bruna. The square has become a popular place for parents and children to visit.

Miffy has been around since the fifties and remained an incredibly popular children’s story ever since. The miffy books were translated in many different languages and sold all over the world.

Nowadays, there is a lot more to miffy than just the books. Over the years, there have been created musicals and tv series about miffy, and a lot of miffy dolls and plush miffy’s are in store everywhere around the world. The Dutch song ‘nijnte en haar vriendjes’ (miffy and her friends) is a children’s song that is inspired on the Dutch animated tv show about miffy.


Nijntje en haar vriendjes (Nijntjepleintje)

EKKO

EKKO is thé innovatory popstage of Utrecht and leading in the Netherlands. Hospitality, quality and authenticy are its trademarks. EKKO searches for current musical and popcultural developments and binds the public, organisators and employees with Utrecht, for offering them a learning environment on the subject of cultural entrepreneurship.

Students always have been important in the history of EKKO. The building on the Bemuurde Weerd has been used by students as an accommodation for students since 1906. This was used by the students cooperation Societas Studiosorum Reformatorum till 1979. It was then sold to the town of Utrecht and transformed into a house of culture. Volunteers and the youth organized movienights, vegetarian meals, theatershows, concerts and parties and in 1986 it got its official name as Cultural Centre EKKO.

EKKO is innovatory in its programming en chooses quality and relevance. Everything EKKO does is based on the enthousiastic support of a big group of volunteers.

Many international musicians have played in EKKO when they first set a step on Dutch musical ground before they started performing in the Tivoli or Vredenburg. EKKO is still the place to discover new talent.

Song
Roos Rebergen (beter bekend als Roosbeef) startte samen met Torre Florim (frontman van De Staat) eind 2009 een bijzonder mooi project: De Speeldoos. Ze brachten een EP uit met zes nummers waarvan de teksten zijn gebaseerd op gedichten geschreven door mensen met een verstandelijke handicap.

In 2013, their new EP came oud; De Tweede Speeldoos. They got their inspiration from conversations with seventeen mentally deficient actors of the Theater Kleinkunst. Six dutch songs came out of these conversations. The song now playing is 'Dansen met jou'.

Roos Rebergen and Torre Florim will perform with this album in EKKO on the 31th of september 


Vrede van Utrecht

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